September 8, 2005 – A special issue of IMBA Trail News, the nationally distributed newsletter of the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), will arrive in mailboxes this September. The 16-page, full-color Freeride Guide is sponsored by Rocky Mountain Bicycles, and contains informative articles, action photography and useful trailbuilding advice geared toward the challenge-oriented style of mountain biking known as freeriding.

This is the third edition of IMBA’s annual Freeride Guide, and the second year it has been sponsored by Rocky Mountain Bicycles.

To compliment the Freeride Guide, the Freeriding Resources section of IMBA’s website has been updated with new stories and photos. The pages contain more than a dozen how-to articles on building freeride trails. All of the material offered in the 2005 Freeride Guide is available online, and past issues of the Trail News Freeride Guides can be downloaded for free at http://www.imba.com/resources/freeriding/index.html

IMBA’s leadership role in freeriding goes well beyond publishing the Freeride Guide. Both Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crews and the fee-based IMBA Trail Solutions program have helped develop new freeriding areas, dirt jump parks, and technical trails. IMBA-affiliated clubs around the world are creating new freeriding areas as well.

“We’re proud to support IMBA in its effort to bring valuable, useable, accessible information to the groups and individuals who are growing freeride mountain biking. Sustainable and responsible access is the most important issue in mountain biking – freeride in particular. Supporting IMBA and its Freeride Guide is an important part of our history and connection to freeride,” says Rocky Mountain Bicycles’ Daina Carmichael.

“Rocky Mountain Bicycles (RMB) has a long history of supporting freeriding. The company was among the first to recognize the style’s potential, and crafted some of the first freeride-specific bikes. RMB sponsors ground-breaking athletes and fosters media representation of this amazing expression of riding,” adds Carmichael.